What is the procedure for transforming Ubuntu into Mint? I'd like to walk myself through the process of transforming Ubuntu into Mint. I want to familiarize myself with the development process and the infrastructure of Linux Mint.

I ask because I am the founder and lead developer of a new lightweight Linux distro called Swift Linux (http://www.swiftlinux.org), which is based on antiX Linux. I want Swift Linux to be the premier distro for Windows XP users by 2014 (when Microsoft ends XP support), just as Linux Mint is the premier distro for Windows Vista and 7 users. I also want Swift Linux to be the premier distro for Ubuntu and Mint users scraping by with only 512 MB of RAM.

Just like you, I find Linux Mint more user-friendly than Ubuntu, and I recommend it over Ubuntu for new Linux users. More importantly, I see that Mint is in second place on Distrowatch and gaining on Ubuntu. This is quite a feat given that Ubuntu has billions of dollars in marketing muscle and the greatest visibility. Thus, I know that Mint is extremely well-run and provides a model for all other distros to follow.

Mostly it comes down to enabling the proper repositories, setting up repository priorities, and adding/removing the necessary packages. If you dig around in the Mint repo you'll see that there are quite a number of patched packages and packages built specifically for Mint. This is where most of the changes come from.

He stated his reason. There isn't a dispute as to which is better he said he would like to learn the infrastructure of a Linux distro, and this is actually a great way to help one learn how a distro is built. Being that Ubuntu is like a foundation upon which he can build this helps learn how all of the overlying architecture is created such as theming and packaging. Its good to understand all of this before delving into all the harder coding of the kernel and deeper sys files